replacing patio door ?

We had French doors and replaced them with sliding glass doors with the blinds between the glass. LOVE them!
 


Thank you for your reply. I wil have to check out the thermastar Door.

You're welcome. We had the door changed a couple of years ago. We have a grandchild now with 2 more on the way. It's great with the built in blinds because he and then they have no curtains to pull on or touch with dirty fingers. :)
 
Lisa. So glad you are happy. When I recommend something of that cost you always hold your breath. I am also very pleased with mine.
 
recently replaced my sliding door and windows. cost around $7k, triple pane windows with argon gas in between. the sliding door cost me like like $2500. Had aluminum windows, they seem pretty disassemble and super easy to put on. Im not sure if it is done as professionally as it should be. my window is held on by 4 screws... :\ after u seen them do it, its actually super easy to do it.
 


Hi, I am having a bit of trouble finding new construction vinyl casement windows with both black/dark brown exterior and interior finishes. The house has 65 windows. Lots of Companies make the dark exteriors but the interiors are white. This look and style is really becoming popular. I think many manufacturers will soon make these color options in an affordable vinyl. While searching online I found Heritage Home Design’s windows ( http://www.heritagehomedesign.ca/windows/window-options/ ) which has a variety of collections.


Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!

My thoughts? You posted simply to advertise this web site. Reported.
 
We just installed four sliding glass doors in our screened porch. We choose inexpensive Reliabuilt units from Lowes for $300 each. They are cheap but a good value for the money. They are better than some doors costing much more. They work well for a screen porch but I'd go up quite a few notches in price and quality if I was going to put them in the main house.

Be careful choosing your door. Some manufacturers have good high end doors, but some of their cheap ones are terrible (like Anderson for example). Make sure to choose low E glass double pane glass for its thermal and anti-fade characteristics. Consider whether you want the interior or exterior painted. Vinyl does not paint easily. Look for reviews online so you can stay away from poorly constructed doors. Also look at the track design and hardware. Units with blinds built in are wonderful but are a big problem if the blind fails. New ceramic high end paints can provide a great protective coating that lasts much longer than the paints of the past. Doors can be custom ordered in many colors both inside and out.

We had a friend help install them. They are difficult to install - even the handles took a while for us to install ourselves. I vote to hire professionals.
 
My DH installed a new slider without difficulty. The old one was dark, heavy, and had condensation in the glass - and locked with a broomstick in the track, lol. The new one was light, bright white, and had the interior blinds. It wasn't a name brand, but it was decent quality and I loved it. (I think we got it at the now-defunct Somerville Lumber.) We liked the slider, as opposed to french doors, because we liked the screen door feature - we have a lot of mosquitos where we live. We also had a relatively small space. So that worked out well for quite a while. (We later sold it at a yard sale - see below - and never heard any complaints from the person who bought it.)

Then we added on a sun room and this time we did put french doors in that spot. We were going to re-use the slider on the outside wall of the sunroom, leading to the deck, but it opened on the wrong side, where I wanted to put a chair. (The builder had actually already installed it when I changed my mind :blush: but he's a great guy and wanted me to be happy with the results.) He had a brand new Anderson slider in his barn that he'd bought on clearance when Somerville Lumber closed, that opened on the other side, so he sold us that one fairly cheap. It's a super nice door and I love it. It not only locks from the handle, but from the bottom, too, which is a nice feature. (Though DD's knucklehead boyfriend broke the upper lock during horseplay - it still works but sticks a bit. Grrr.) It also came with a nice screened door. (We also have an Anderson slider in our in law apt that we built 20 years ago and it's still in great shape, no issues.)

The french doors came from a lumber company, made to order. We chose smaller, outdoor ones as opposed to indoor ones, for fit in that particular space, and insulation. We've had good luck with those so far with the exception of a couple of small rips in the rubber sheathing on the edges of the doors, but I imagine those can be easily replaced if need be. The quailty of the doors themselves is very good and we're happy with the way they look and operate. We tend to leave them open except with extreme weather (to conserve heating or AC).

I think these types of doors add a nice touch to homes. DH and I both grew up in homes that had just regular doors so we've always liked having them. Today there are youtube videos that help a lot if you want to learn how to do something. Or one could read about it. I guess inspecting for mold and knowing what to do about it if found, as well as knowing how to fit a door properly and level it, etc, would be essential. Good luck to all.
 
The reason why you are not able to close your door could be because the screws that hold the hinges to your door would have come of free causing the door to sag. Try tightening the screws of your door. A faulty interior door latch or the overall fitting of your door could be a problem. If you looking for replacing your door, I suggest you get a more energy efficient door like vinyl or fiberglass. My front door was having the same problem. I tried fixing it myself but it kind of got screwed up in the end. So I called in for professional help and had northtech(http://northtechwindows.ca/our-services/door-installation/) install the door for me. I choose a vinyl door, which is great because it protects your house from harmful uv rays and keeps your home cool during the winter preventing unwanted drafts to enter your house. Wooden doors are good too but they are very expensive and you have to pay a lot of additional maintenance charge.
 
Don't go cheap just because you don't plan to stay there. If you want to sell it and go cheap it will show. Also, you are there now, and you never know what might happen. My sister had a new door installed but she also had a house full of windows at the same time so no idea on the price for just the door. She has a beautiful door. Her husband is very handy and did not attempt this on his own. However, he did install French doors in another area with my husbands help. But as I said, he is a carpenter, so...
 
We are in the midst of replacing our patio doors due to the first ones rotting out. Our house was built in 2001. Turns out two of our neighbors are also replacing theirs due to rotting. We had three different builders and installed three different company's doors. The problem seems to be how the siding was installed originally. Of course, our insurance says this is not covered.

We bought a door and my husband and his brother installed and took it out three different times (three solid days work). They have both built houses. Turns out the door seems to be defective, the company said they would "file a claim" but have not sent anyone out to look at it. We had the store pick it up today and hopefully we will get our money back.

Home Depot came out yesterday to measure and quote a price. Anderson double patio doors (no screen), installed, and with the repairs of the siding above it so we don't have the problem again will cost just over $5,000. After all the hassle - these doors weigh a ton - we will probably go with that even though the front of our house is now boarded up and will stay that way until they are able to bring the new one - 4-6 weeks.

This is not a "do-it-yourself" job because of the weight of the doors and everything has to be level. READ the reviews on the company that will be doing the work. Turns out the first door we bought has terrible reviews and the company pretty much doesn't warranty anything because they blame it on the "install". Good luck!

This was my post two years ago. It took 4.5 months before Home Depot finally installed the door. We were boarded up all that time - the front of our house which was clearly visible to everyone that drove by. It took letters to the Presidents of Home Depot, Anderson Doors, and Angie's Lists before anything got done even though it had a 3/4 down payment. Very frustrating.
 
My DH is very handy around the house, and he would not even try to install sliders... I would go with someone professional, and has some type of warranty. If you have some wood rot, you most definitely will want someone who knows what they are doing. A co-worker of DH...decided to go from sliders to French doors... as they thought that they had a little wood rot around the framing... come to find out that they had a lot of rotten wood in the wall, that had a roof leak into the wall and the wall with the slider was load bearing, so it went from a 3,500.00 dollar job to over 10,000 and that did not cover the new roof that they had to put on...

Also you might want to spend a little more and look at it as an investment for resale once you decide to sell it. Plus it will give you piece of mind while you are still living there.
 
Wow!! This is a thread that just keeps popping up every few years!
If the posters are around, how are those doors holding up??!
 
Lowes installed French doors at our old house and they did a terrible job. Where we live now, people are telling more horror stories about Lowes and door installation (we need a hurricane proof door now). Took Lowes three inspections to finally pass the inspection.
 

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